ELLEN
BERG
Diary #6
My Seventh-Year Growth Spurt
I wonder if scientists have ever done studies on just when a teacher starts to "get it." While thousands of married couples everywhere experience the seven-year itch, my teammate and I seem to be experiencing a seven-year growth spurt.
I have hinted in earlier entries that the way to design instruction seems so much clearer to me this year, but I have not paused to share my new understandings with you all. Every year I go through mild panic attacks worrying about covering everything in my curriculum. Not just covering it, but teaching for mastery. Sometimes (like with the T-notes) it seems like my students take so long to master a concept that other concepts are thrown by the wayside, rushed through in a blur of surface activity. I have long wondered how it is possible to cover content deeply AND widely; it has always seemed that one would have to be sacrificed for the other. Not so. Part of this awakening has to be attributed to MiddleWeb's summer 2001 online integrated unit project. Through that online collaboration, I first heard of the process of backward curriculum design promoted by Grant Wiggins in his book, Understanding by Design. Through that discussion I learned how to start with my objectives first, then design the activities and lessons from that point. Simple, yes, but a profound concept for me at the time.How I planned for this year
This summer as I began outlining my year, I started with my objectives first. Patterns began to emerge as I looked at the objectives and examined our school test data. We scored low on problem-solving across all content areas and extremely low on interpreting characters, so I decided to begin with characters. Natural tie-ins seemed to be:
1. Making inferences and predictionsAs I mentioned in the last few weeks, I have also added taking notes from textbooks to the mix. I integrated that skill by having students take notes about characterization from Fletcher's text for kids, Live Writing. What is the result? I am finding my kids have a much better understanding of the concepts we have been covering. In past years it has been difficult for my students to explain what a character is like using details from the text, but this year it is almost as if it is second nature to them. While we explore the reading – reading like readers and writers – their writing is improving. Suddenly my students are getting how it is all connected, how one idea feeds into another one.
2. Examining short stories
3. Using the text to support opinions
4. Narrative writing
5. Author's purpose
6. Sensory details
7. Dialogue (effective use and punctuation of)
8. Showing vs. telling
9. Identifying patterns across texts
10. Revision
Perhaps that's because their teacher is beginning to see and teach the connections as well.
A sample character sketch
I'd like to leave you with an excerpt from one of my students' character sketches, still in draft form:"Everybody out!" the teacher yells.Knowing this young lady's brother of whom she writes, I have to say she has captured him well.
"But I'm not finished yet," Devin yells.
"Devin, that's not my problem." He gives her the finger with a snort.
"Hey, what's up?" DeAndre said with a popular grin.
"Nothing man. That stupid teacher is getting on my last nerve."
The intercom blares, "Devin Jones, please come to the office!!!"
"Aw man, they probably called your mom," Dre said.
"Man, whatever," Devin said with a grin.
"You do remember what happened in the bathroom the last time," Dman said with a stupid look on his face. "Your momma really got you then."
